Menachem Mendel Kohn (Kon) (1881, probably Ostrów Mazowiecka – April 1943) – a merchant and entrepreneur; treasurer at “Oneg Shabbat”, a close associate of Dr Emanuel Ringelblum

Before the Second World War, he lived in Ostrołęka with his family. He was a wealthy merchant and entrepreneur. After the outbreak of war, he and other refugees found themselves in Warsaw. In the Warsaw Ghetto, he worked at the Jewish Self-Help, where he met Emanuel Ringelblum, thanks to whom he became one of the founders of the “Oneg Shabbat” group. In the autumn of 1940, he became its treasurer. He kept the cash book of “Oneg Shabbat” from autumn 1940 to August 1942, obtained funds for the day-to-day functioning of the group, and obtained financial aid and distributed it to the group’s associates who found themselves in a particularly difficult situation. Thanks to his work, he saved many people from typhoid fever or death by starvation, because, as Ringelblum emphasised in his Pisma, “Finances were kept at a proper level by [our] hearty comrade Menachem K[ohn]” [1.1]. Also according to Hersh Wasser – secretary of the “Oneg Shabbat”, Kohn was one of the main links of the Archive, without whom the group could not exist. According to Rachel Aurebach, he headed the committee that raised finances so that many well-known Jewish activists could get out to the “Aryan side” and settle there.

Kohn survived the Grossaktion of deportation, which he described in a diary he kept from 6 August to 1 October 1942[1.2]. After the Aktion, he belonged to the Civic Committee of the Jewish Combat Organisation and was tasked with collecting funds for weapons for the fighters. Until the outbreak of the ghetto uprising – i.e. 19 April 1943 – he collected material for the Underground Ghetto Archive. He died after the outbreak of the uprising in April 1943.

In addition to his diary mentioned above, the Archive contains, among other things, his memoirs about one of the close collaborators of “Oneg Shabbat” – Rabbi Szymon Huberband[1.3] and thank-you notes from people he saved – or at least helped to survive in the ghetto a little longer [1.4].

Dr. Martyna Rusiniak-Karwat

References:

• Archiwum Ringelbluma. Konspiracyjne Archiwum Getta Warszawy, vol. 7: Spuścizny, comp. K. Person, Warsaw 2012.
• Archiwum Ringelbluma. Konspiracyjne Archiwum Getta Warszawy, vol. 11: Ludzie i prace „Oneg Szabat”,  A. Bańkowska, T. Epsztein, Warsaw 2013.
• Archiwum Ringelbluma. Konspiracyjne Archiwum Getta Warszawy, vol. 12: Rada Żydowska w Warszawie (1939–1943), M. Janczewska, Warsaw 2014.
• Archiwum Ringelbluma. Konspiracyjne Archiwum Getta Warszawy, vol. 23: Dzienniki z getta warszawskiego, K. Person, Z. Trębacz, M. Trębacz, Warsaw 2015.
• Archiwum Ringelbluma. Konspiracyjne Archiwum Getta Warszawy, vol. 27: Żydowska Samopomoc Społeczna w Warszawie (1939–1943), A. Bańkowska, M. Ferenc Piotrowska, Warsaw 2017.
• Archiwum Ringelbluma. Konspiracyjne Archiwum Getta Warszawy, vol. 29: Pisma Emanuela Ringelbluma z getta, comp. J. Nalewajko-Kulikov, Warsaw 2018.
• Archiwum Ringelbluma. Konspiracyjne Archiwum Getta Warszawy, vol. 29a: Pisma Emanuela Ringelbluma z bunkra, comp. E. Bergman, T. Epsztein, M. Siek, Warsaw 2018.
• Archiwum Ringelbluma. Konspiracyjne Archiwum Getta Warszawy, vol. 32: Pisma rabina Szymona Huberbanda, comp. A. Ciałowicz, Warsaw 2017.
• Rachela Aurebach, Warszewer cawoes. Bagegeniszn, aktiwitetn, gojroles. 1933–1943, Tel Aviv 1974.
• S. D. Kassow, Kto napisze naszą historię? Ukryte Archiwum Emanuela Ringelbluma, transl. G. Waluga, O. Zienkiewicz, Warsaw 2017.